Recreational Marijuana Petitioners Say They Have More Than Half the Signatures They Need

A ballot measure (read it here) to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota (and to expunge the criminal records of people convicted of marijuana-related charges which would be legal under this measure) has been approved for circulation since December 15.

Today the group behind the measure – Legalize ND – announced they have collected more than 8,000 signatures so far.

“As of this week, we have collected 8,000 signatures for our petition to get on the ballot, more than half of the way towards the required amount,” campaign spokesman Josh Dryer said in a fundraising email which went out today (see below).

They have until July 9 – which is also 103 days away from today, as it happens – to hit the 13,452 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot. If they keep up this pace they’ll hit 15,931 signatures.

Doing the math, that amounts to 77 signatures collected per day over the 103 days since the measure was approved.

They have until July 9 – which is also 103 days away from today, as it happens – to hit the 13,452 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot. If they keep up this pace they’ll hit 15,931 signatures.

It’s not unusual to see thousands of signatures disqualified due to errors in how they were collected or because signatures are invalid for one reason or another (usually because they’re illegible), so the campaign will probably want to collect as many signatures as they can.

Lucky for them, it’s a lot easier to collect signatures during the warmer spring and summer months when more people are outside in public. I expect the pace of the signature collection will pick up, and they’ll qualify for the ballot easily.

There currently aren’t any ballot measures approved for the June election (the deadline for making that ballot passed back in February) or the November election.